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Church Reaches Beyond Doors to Serve Community

A church in Ethiopia is reaching beyond its doors to combine discipleship and community development into one, seamless movement of love.The Kumburo Mekane Yesus Church in Sasiga, Ethiopia is walking the talk, practically and sacrificially acting as the hands and feet of Jesus in their community. This year, they ramped up the mobilization of their development resources. According to Tadese Gemeda, the chair of their development committee, establishing a diaconal group prompted their leadership to create a concrete plan for how their church would support the most vulnerable members of their community.As a result, providing the elderly with food and clothing has become a regular practice in the church.The development committee also took on a construction project when they directed church resources to build a house for a widow named Tirfi Geleta. She currently lives with her grandson, Samuel. Five chronically hungry families have been given four instalments of maize or sorghum, equal to 50kg each. The value of the total amount of crops provided so far is around 2000 Birr ($85 USD). Tadese reports that church members organized themselves to rebuild a bridge that had been broken for a long time. All of the labour and materials were provided by the congregation. Church leaders estimate the bridge cost at about 5000 Birr ($215 USD). The church members have already moved on to the construction of another two bridges whose disrepair has long-hindered the community members from attending the church as a result of the river overflow.

All of these initiatives are being overseen and accomplished by the 244 men and 334 women who have voluntarily joined the church's development sector. That's 578 people making daily sacrifices in the name of Jesus to practically improve their community.